The Big Data Brain Drain Why Science is in Trouble

I dont often blog about academia, but my colleague, Mark Wilson, has brought this fascinating blog article, called The Big Data Brain Drain: Why Science is in Trouble to my attention. It basically makes the case that academic science is in trouble because the skills it requires are either very much in demand by industry and commerce (i.e, the ability to analyse big data) and that the skills required to create scientific software to do just this are not well rewarded inside academia. I encourage you to read the article yourself.

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Poker program Cepheus is unbeatable

My research group has been developing computer poker applications for many years so it was with considerable interest to see a headline in the Guardian newspaper that read "Poker program Cepheus is unbeatable, claim scientists." Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada, who have long been the leading research group in computer poker, have used "four thousand computer processors, each handling six billion hands every second. With each game Cepheus [the name of their system] played, the program built up a database of cards dealt, betting decisions and outcomes. At the end of the marathon training session, the database contained 11 terabytes of information on calls, raises and folds for every hand a player could have." It will be interesting to see if Cepheus competes in the annual Computer Poker Competition and if it shows a step change in performance. However, we will have to wait until 2016 for the next competition.

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How to delete the files of a software which is partly installed

Many a times when we install a software, the computer hangs or there is an accidental shutdown due to power-cut or due to any other reason the installation remains incomplete and the software is installed partly. Sometimes, we cannot delete the files of this partly installed software. Or if we delete those files manually, the registry values entered by this software is not removed. To overcome all these problems, Microsoft provides a small utility- "Microsoft Windows Installer Cleanup Utility"

This utility allows you to safely remove these files it doesnt damage any other programs. And you can start with a fresh installation.
Click to download the application(271.48 KB)

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Email Is Still the Best Thing on the Internet

We keep being told that email is unproductive and there are better ways to communicate productively. For example Justin Rosenstein , the co-founder of Asana a productivity software startup says: "Email has become a counter-productivity tool." However, an interesting article in the Atlantic Monthly puts all these sales pitches in their place. Email is a great tool, possible the best thing about the Internet!

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Apple is building a car

The Guardian revealed last week that Apple is looking for a secure vehicle test track facility near SiliconValley. Therefore confirming the rumours that Apple is working on building a self-driving car. However, an article in The Verge warns Apple fans not to hold their breath. The development cycl e time from concept to production, for established car manufacturers, is in excess of 5 years. Apple has no experience in this market and consequently may be expected to take longer. Of course this may be like Apple Maps where Apple belatedly realised they strategically couldnt gift location support to Google and their established mapping product. Google, of course, has been developing driverless cars for ages. Apple has perhaps realised it cant leave this market segment to Google or risk just partnering with one car manufacturer.

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The Internet Is Failing The Website Preservation Test

I blogged a few months back about the increasing problem of dead links (known as link rot) on research web sites. Not surprisingly this problem is not isolated to academic websites. An article by Rob Miller in TechChrunch, called "The Internet Is Failing The Website Preservation Test," makes the case for a a digital Library of Congress to preserve and protect all of the content on the internet to counter this growing problem. Preserving the integrity of the web for posterity cannot he (and others) argue be left to content publishers or non-profits like the Internet Archives Wayback Machine or the British Librarys UK Web Archive. The web is such a vital information source to us all know it must be preserved for future historians.

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TYBSC IT Sem V Internet Security IS Question Papers 2003 2009 Mumbai University

Below is the collection of TY BSc IT Sem V Internet Security Question Papers of Mumbai University.
Click on the corresponding links to download the papers.
If you have any Question papers to share, click here to publish in this site.

Question Papers below are submitted by : Sarita Prajapati

• Internet Security October 2003
• Internet Security 2004 oct
• Internet Security 2004
• Internet Security May 2005
• Internet Security November 2005
• Internet Security November 2006
• Internet Security May 2006
• Internet Security 2007
• Internet Security April 2008
• Internet Security October 2008
• Internet Security April 2009

Click here to Download Question papers of other Subjects

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Is your English prefect

Even those of us who write professionally for a living often make typos, such as letter transpositions (did you spot "prefect" in the title instead of "perfect", and sometimes our grammar is less than perfect. All of us can use a little help. Ive always recommended that my students use spell and grammar checkers built into software like Microsoft Word. However, as we increasingly create documents in the cloud, in browser-based software, that option is not available - enter Grammarly. If youre a regular reader of this blog you know that I dont often promote products, but Im impressed with this. Grammarly once installed as a browser extension sits in the background watching every word you type. It then underlines words that may be misspelled or easily confused with similar words, either by spelling or meaning. Hovering the cursor over the word brings up suggestions that you can accept or reject. Grammarly also has OS X and Windows apps and an MS Office plug-in (Win only). Highly recommended. 

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BASIC is 50 years old

Dartmouth University has announced that: "At 4 a.m. on May 1, 1964, in the basement of College Hall, Professor John Kemeny and a student programmer simultaneously typed RUN on neighboring terminals. When they both got back correct answers to their simple programs, time-sharing and BASIC were born." They created a whole website, BASIC at 50, to support this anniversary and events to support it. If youre a computing purist you probably despise BASIC, but you cant deny its influence - I first programmed using BASIC on a BBC Micro computer. However, one of my older colleagues believes the history of BASIC is not as simple as Dartmouth makes out saying "Dartmouth always had a good press office."


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Tate Britain Is Offering Everyone Remote Tours Using Robots

One of my favourite art galleries recently offered remote tours of its exhibitions by robot after hours. Wired reports that "Since at least the 1960s, weve romanticized night time visits to art museums. In From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, published in 1967, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a 12-year-old runaways chosen hideout destination." I really wish Id been able to take a tour and I hope other museums take up this idea. In the meantime this video will have to suffice.



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USB device is not detected or is malfunctioning

It’s not easy to troubleshoot a USB device, since they are usually plug-n-play devices. If your OS is Windows XP, it’s very easy to install and begin using a USB device; Windows XP has its own native drivers. But if your drive is not detectable, then the issue is probably hardware related. You could try the following steps to solve this issue:

1. Sometimes the problem is solved by simply unplugging it and plugging it back firmly. It can be a case of loose connection.
2. Try restarting your computer with the drive plugged into the USB port.
3. Some times there is a voltage drop across the USB port which also can be responsible for the problem. Simply wait for few minutes it will be detected automatically.
4. If all these attempts are useless, go to the "Device Manager"- Right click on my computer icon desktop and click on "Manage >> Device Manager".

• Expand the Universal Serial Bus Controller List.
• You can see an exclamation mark. Right-click on it and then click on "Uninstall".
• Now, Right-click on "Universal Serial Bus Controller" and click on scan for hardware changes. Now your USB device must be detected.

If all these attempts have not solved your problem, then probably you device is malfunctioning.
Visit microsoft help for more. Click here.

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Simple is better Making your web forms easy to use pays off

Posted by Javier Bargas-Avila and Mirjam Seckler, User Experience Research at Google

Imagine yourself filling out a long and cumbersome form on a website to register for a service. After several minutes of filling out fields, coming up with a password, and handling captchas, you click the submit button to encounter your form filled with red error messages. Suddenly the “close tab” button seems much more tempting than before.

Despite the rapid evolution of the Internet, web forms, with their limited and unilateral way of interaction, remain one of the core barriers between users and website owners. Any kind of obstacle or difficulty in filling in online forms can lead to increased frustration by the user, resulting in drop-outs and information loss.

In 2010, a set of 20 guidelines to optimize web forms was published by researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland, including best practices aimed to improve web forms and reduce frustration, errors and drop-outs. For instance, guideline no. 13 states that if answers are required in a specific format, the imposed rule should communicated in advance; or no. 15 that states that forms should never clear already completed fields after an error occurs.

To investigate the impact of applying these rules, we conducted a study and presented our results at CHI 2014: Designing usable web forms: empirical evaluation of web form improvement guidelines. In the study, we examined a sample of high traffic online forms and rated them based on how well they followed the form guidelines outlined by the 2010 publication. We then selected three different online forms of varying qualities (low, medium and high), and improved them by applying the guidelines, with the high quality form needing less modification than the medium and low quality forms. We then tested both the original and improved forms extensively with 65 participants in a controlled lab environment.

In our study, the modified forms showed significant improvements over the original forms in the time users needed to complete a form, an increase in successful first-trial submissions and higher user satisfaction. As expected, the impact was highest when the original form was of low quality, but even high quality forms showed improved metrics.

Furthermore, user interviews with participants in the study revealed which guidelines were most impactful in improving the forms:

• Format specifications (e.g., requiring a minimum password length) should be stated in the form, prior to submission. The application of this guideline had a large positive impact on user performance, subjective user ratings and was also mentioned frequently in user interviews.
• Error messages must be placed next to the erroneous field and designed in a way users are easily able to fix the problem. Doing this reduced form-filling time and increased subjective ratings.
• Most frequently users mentioned that it was key to be able to tell apart optional and mandatory fields.

Example Guideline: State format specification in advance

 Example Guideline :Place error message next to erroneous fields

Example Guideline: Distinguish optional and mandatory fields

Putting field labels above rather than adjacent to the fields in the form led also to improvements in the way users scanned the form. Using eye-tracking technology, our study shows that users needed less number of fixations, less fixation time and fewer saccades before submitting the form for the first time.

Scan path for an original and improved form

From our study, we conclude that optimizing online forms is well worth the resource investment. With easy to implement actions, you can improve your forms, increase the number of successful transactions, and end up with more satisfied users. Google is currently working on implementing these findings on our own forms.

We wish to thank our co-authors at the University of Basel, Switzerland for their collaboration in this work: Silvia Heinz, Klaus Opwis and Alexandre Tuch.

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POP mp3 is downloaded when using facebook chat

This is nothing but the new message sound. It is not a virus or bug.
To disable it, just Click on options and Un-check "Play sound for new messages"
Thats it, now enjoy chatting.

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What is Recycler Folder and How to remove it

You mus be wondering, Is recycler a virus? Is it a windows folder? why is it not deletable?
This article will give you a clear detail of this issue.
If you have used Windows for quite some time now then you must have seen this folder called RECYCLER. But many people don’t know what this folder is and what is it doing in the drive?

What is Recycler folder?

The Recycler folder is used only on NTFS partitions and is referred to as a location where all the deleted files go after they have been deleted by the user.

Now you may be wondering if it contains the deleted files then why we have the Recycle Bin.
When a file is deleted it goes to the Recycle Bin but when the Recycle Bin is emptied, the files are stored in this Recycler folder. This is the reason why we can still restore the deleted data in the Windows.

Difference between Recycle Bin and Recycler:

Recycle Bin stores the file that are deleted from the computer until it is emptied completely whereas the Recycler folder contains a Recycle Bin for each user that logs on to the computer.

Recycled Folder:

This is something different than the Recycler folder as Recycled is same as Recycle Bin. That is both Recycled and Recycle Bin are just two different names for the same memory location.

How to delete Recycler Folder:
Recycler is a read only folder and that is why it gave error if you tried to delete it. To view the folder, go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View tab and uncheck the option of Hide Protected operating System Files.
Now just right click on the folder, go to Properties and unselect the option of Read Only. Now it can be deleted.

Recycler Virus:
There has been identified a virus with the same name that is Recycler.exe which should not be confused with the Recycler folder.

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How the internet of things is changing sport

Weve heard a lot about the internet of things in the last few years, smart fridges and home thermostats for example, but its having an effect in places you might not expect, for example sport. An article by Stephen Pritchard in The Guardian titled The internet of things is revolutionising the world of sport describes the fascinating new ways its being applied, from golf clubs that monitor your swing to the Connected Athlete project. Fascinating stuff.

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This is how Game of Thrones will end

This is an "off topic" post, but like many Ive become addicted to Game of Thrones and have spent some time trying to figure out how it may end and I think Ive cracked it. Im going to share my theory with you. Although it seems that Daenerys Targaryen wants to claim the 7 Kingdoms for herself she has shown that every time she comes across slaves she frees them and she abhors suffering and oppression. Her growing army fights for her as free men because they want to, not because they are her subjects. In the North the Wildlings are free, they bend the knee to no Lord. So Heres what I think will happen (note: I cant be precise on the detail but Im sure of the general theme). The surviving Starks, led by Bran, with magical Warg powers, will defeat the White Walkers. But to do this theyll need to team up with the Wildlings. I suspect Jon Snow will be instrumental in forming that allegiance. Meanwhile Daenerys and her army will attack the south. Eventually a combination of the two "free" armies will defeat the Lanister, Tyrel, Frey, Baratheon, et al Lords. The point you need to understand here is that this is a revolution. Free people are overturning the corrupt, decadent, self-serving, self-appointed nobility. Instrumental in this will be various characters of common birth who have no allegiance to a Lord, or who have come to believe their Lords are corrupt: Davos the Onion Knight (a smuggler made good), The Hound (Sandor Clegane), Gendry (the bastard of Robert Baratheon). I also think that Tyrion Lanister and Arya Stark have shown commitment to the oppressed. I dont know if any of these characters will survive but they will all fight for the revolution. The final ending will be at the Iron Throne, just as we think Daenerys Targaryen is about to claim the thrown of the 7 kingdoms she will command that one of her dragons (maybe all three if they still survive) melt it down with dragonfire. Shell then give an uplifting speech on how now all people are free. The End. The Game of Thrones will end with no throne. In support of my theory is the fact that the author George R.R. Martin was a conscientious-objector during the Vietnam War. He doesnt believe people should be forced to fight wars for the rich and powerful.

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The blog is back with IDEAS

The blogger lecturing in Scotland

Im back from three weeks in Europe: attending a conference in Cork and visiting several Scottish universities (Napier, Robert Gordon, and Abert ay). I was hosted in Scotland by Prof. Susan Craw of the IDEAS Research Institute. In paprticular they have some very interesting research projects in Smart Information Systems, which would translate well into New Zealand. Whist in Aberdeen I also gave a public lecture on Alan Turing and the Artificial Brain that was very well attended.

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